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Collaboration using Google Docs – In Mathematics Class –

Collaboration can be defined as working practice whereby individuals work together to a common purpose to achieve goals. Students are invited and taught to have the ability to be helpful and make necessary compromises to accomplish a common goal.

This level of engagement that makes students feel like they’re together in the same room.

In my class, the goal of this activity is making my G9 students remember all the topics that we covered in class for two semesters. When they remember it, easier for them to recalling the problem and reconnect to the questions. Students need to prepare for their semester two final exam (paper based exam).

Below are the procedure of the activity:

Listing the syllabus that had been covered for two semesters.
I summarise in a document (in google docs).
Share the document to students. All students have the same access to edit the document, except to change access and adding new people.
In class – 2 hours lesson, they must post questions per outcomes from syllabus and answer their friends posting. They can create their own questions, take from text book or past paper, insert pictures, browsing from internet. I check each question and put comments to state correct or wrong questions or answers that they have posted. When they find it wrong, they will fix it and after that click on “marked as resolved”.
Students can continue add questions or answer it at home. They are given 24 hours to complete it.
This activity graded as an individual assessment, with the criteria (Rubric) as follows:
- Number of questions posted in the document.
- Number of questions that is answered.
- Complexity of the questions.
- Use of g(Math) add-ons to present equations / expressions / functions in document.
Marking given when I trace the revision history in the document.

As a basic knowledge, students must install g(Math) add-ons in their own shared document. Below are the instructions:

In the document:

Watch the video tutorial when needed, then install it.

After installing g(math), you can create math expressions:

Create a graph:

Create a statistical display:

Create a handwriting entry:

You can use another add-ons, Kaizena to add voice comments to students. While we can also use g(Math) with Google Forms to create online math quizzes and tests. Both tutorials will be given later 🙂

So, this is one example of teaching learning activities in class, especially in revision week before exam. We can create more activities engage them to be active learner. By doing this, at the end of this activity, I received a bunch of questions, and for them, suddenly, they have their own question banks (with answers) in cloud.

The following video recorded during the collaboration in class:

Souvenir from Indonesia Digital Learning 2016

We teach 21st century students, we are from 20th century teachers, we teach in 19th century school and in 18th century classroom design.

I joined seminar held by PT Telkom Indonesia, “Indonesia Digital Learning 2016” at hotel JS Luwansa, Kuningan, Jakarta.

I was pretty excited with this chance. I went there with idea to meet, to learn and relearn. To meet and greet my colleagues from many school around Jakarta. Lucky me, I met several teachers from outside Jakarta and Java. And also met my “online” colleagues from the blog that we join and follow.

Seminar was held for two days. The key speaker was Prof. Richardus Eko Indrajit. With all materials can be downloaded from IndonesiaDigitalLearning.com website, Prof. Eko still conveyed his speech so interesting. He did very well, for “not a new thing anymore” , which means not over information about 21st century learning skills. I believe, we need to be reminded as teachers, but not too over as now we almost past 20 years of our 21st century 😄.

Teaching with technology is not only teaching use gadgets as tools. Some people still need to shift the paradigm about it. Tools for teaching doesn’t make you as the teachers who applies technologies in 21st century learning, only some parts of it.

The most important thing is how you handle situation in your teaching and learning environments. You use handy, cool, and powerful gadgets, but you still tell your students that they can not use those stuff or even calculator to help them calculate in class, means you totally misunderstanding and misinterpretation the idea of technology itself.

Back to the event, I saw bunch of teachers in different necessities, those who really want to learn new things, the other one who want to share, some want to be reminded the idea of technology in education (like me, probably 🙂 ). With many reasons, we were there and tried to do as the best as we could to involve in education, where ever we are.

__________________________________________________________________________

IDL is one of CSR program from PT Telkom Indonesia for Improving Indonesian Education. It is amazing. Our education really need to be supported from many aspects. They also encourage teachers from all over Indonesia to involve with the improvement of the education itself.

The IDL program is to increase teachers’s competences in ICT for teaching and learning process.

One of the encouragement given is competition. Yeaaahh most people like competition, they like to compete to others. And the title for the winners is A HERO :). For me, personally, it is kinda weird terms. You compete to be a winner, not to be a hero.

To be chosen as 45 finalists from hundreds (almost a thousand) teachers, will be a proud for teachers mostly. It’s natural feeling, isn’t it? How can you be in the 45 teachers and in few days, will come up with 8 heroes? What is the consideration from the Jury? Is it fair enough? Is the chance really for everyone? Are they looking for the real hero from all over school in Indonesia? Or they have concerns on choosing someone to be the brand of “My Teacher My Hero”? Pro and Cons come from this event.

Talking to myself, if they want to find the real Hero, they should spread the chance widely. If only given to some people and same people, their program does not work in well.

Jakarta, May 2016

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Throwback to my class in 2010 – 2011

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